The moment a mommy waits for!

Tonight we were up at Faith and Bill Thompson's house for dinner and to meet their two daughters who came home from China just two weeks ago. The Thompsons live in the big old house of my childhood, and I always feel warm and fuzzy being there, especially in the company of good friends!

We met Piper Joy and Jadyn Pearl.  Jadyn will join our daughter YiLi in her first grade class with Mrs. Funk next week, and now there will be three little Chinese girls there: YiLi, Jadyn and Cindy!

We got to talking (mostly about China!) and before we knew it, it was 8:30 - already 30 minutes past bedtime and we weren't even home! I guess it doesn't hurt once in a great while, but our routine is good and we don't want to "monkey" with it!

So home we went and straight to bed. I asked my usual "How many, YiLi?" and YiLi replied "29". Yikes, what will happen when she can count to 1000?! So I kissed her head 29 times, taking more and more liberties, and as I walked out of her room, I said "Love you . ." and continued down the hall. Then, all at once, I heard in a loud and excited voice "YOU TOO!" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's it - the end of my story tonight and the beginning of a lifetime of dreams come true!
                                                       signed . . . one happy Mommy

Loyal puppies and skating parties!

To think, we were concerned that YiLi would be terrified of our dogs! Now it is true that she doesn't want them to get TOO close, but she is definitely warming up to both of them. She talks about them all the time, and she includes them in her drawings at school!  In this one from this morning, Holly "Ha Ha" was doing what she does every morning - she works her little front paws up in the air as if she is begging YiLi to come and play with her downstairs. It's so cute, and this morning YiLi played along more than she ever has!

Here's a few pictures from the first day of school, which was January 3, 2012! YiLi has really enjoyed school from the very beginning! Shw thinks it is too funny that her teacher is Mrs. Funk and her principal is Mr. Funk! Last night when we saw them at the Chinese restaurant she just kept saying "Two Funks! Two Funks!"

All of the children are being so loving and kind to YiLi! They say that she is learning English really quickly. She has a classmate from China named Cindy - her mother owns the local Chinese restaurant. Cindy has been here for over one year. I have noticed that both Cindy and YiLi are very shy to talk to other children. I wonder if that is a cultural thing. But she wants to go to school every single day, and for that, we are very thankful!

YiLi got invited (along with her whole class) to a birthday party at the roller rink! Boy was that a blast from the past for Rick and me! We think we found a very enjoyable hobby for YiLi. She had a great time, never wanted to leave the skating floor. We'll definitely be taking her back soon! She took to it like a natural, well as soon as Mommy and Daddy backed away and let her skate by herself!

I'll close on this note: Whoever plays JENGA with YiLi is bound to lose, because she's a master at building the tower high!

One last bit of advice though . . . keep this yellow dog's tail far away from your project! She might look innocent, but she's not!

We've known YiLi for two months less two days, and we can hardly even remember what it was like without her blessing our family. We thank God every day for both of our daughters!